Greetings All, Slipped on offshore with a handful of regulars Thursday. Swiftly caught limits of nice sea bass. Ain't always that way...even among clients on the same boat. A downturn in your luck can keep you down. Had a client begin the day with one of them expensive jigs. Cbass weren't playing; not taking his jig nor mine well at all. They were taking bait though - a great bite. So my very tall client, code named "Kevin" (honestly a good angler)(usually) switches to bait. Too late. His luck is cast. Double & single keepers for everyone else; eh, he's got double throwbacks. First client limits out ..and this fellow can still count his cbass on one hand.

So I did something I haven't done in 32 years. I tied a six-hook rig. Yup. He caught six at a time. Everyone limited out. Believe me - I'm absolutely NOT going to allow more than 2 hooks. I routinely take the third hook off 3 hook store-bought rigs.. But because desperate measures were called for---and because I only had 4 clients---we could do it with no fear of gargantuan tangles.

Limited out & headed in early Thursday, I stopped at a reef the Iron Lady had been to earlier in the day - Del Baker's OC Rescue Underwater Search Team Reef (OCRUST Reef). I needed to confirm location on a load of concrete pipe & pick up our 100 pound anchors. Heavy work. Lots & lots of work.

Wednesday the Iron Lady did another deployment at Sue Foster's Drifting Easy Reef. Clients & Employees at Oyster Bay Tackle have given generously in Sue's name. Believe me, there were lean years when Sue Foster kept the fire going in our little non-profit. It's a nice reef. I doubt it's done yet either.

Iron Lady did another run still last Sunday..

These spots we're building will last centuries or more into the future. They'll all become so grown-over in coral that, eventually, even the shape of pipe will become difficult to discern. A lot of fish will have fed, hidden from predators, grown to maturity, & spawned: a great many even before a thin skin of coral has grown.

Done a lot of taking. Time to put back.

Going for broke, I will be putting big charges on my own credit cards in a couple days. Pay the rent on our 3 ton forklift, pay truck drivers to bring us 22 tons of scrap concrete pipe. I couldn't guess how much boat time I've donated..

The opportunity to build reef with the Iron Lady is unprecedented. It's low-budget reefing, but super accurate & robust.

Lots & lots of you have helped make it happen. Take all the help we can get right now. http://www.ocreefs.org